The National Western Stock Show’s annual longhorn cattle drive and parade through the streets of downtown Denver was today along 17th Street from Union Station to the state Capitol.
The grand marshal of this year’s parade was Boulder’s Penny Tweedy Chenery, who bred and managed the legendary thoroughbred Secretariat to the 1973 Triple Crown title. Diane Lane portrayed Chenery in the Disney movie “Secretariat,” which was released in October.
In recent years, the kickoff parade has been the Tuesday after the show begins.
“In the beginning, the parade was always held the day before the show started, on a Wednesday,” said show spokeswoman Bonnie Blitz. “But when the opening got moved up to a Saturday, the parade wasn’t moved. We thought moving the parade back was a great way to get back to that tradition and better promote the opening of the show.”
The stock show opens Saturday and runs through Jan. 23 at the National Western Complex at Interstate 70 and Brighton Boulevard.
Each year hundreds of thousands of people attend the annual celebration of Western life that features hundreds of vendors, livestock, daily rodeos, thousands of young 4-H competitors, the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Championships and scores of special events.
The stock show has been a Denver tradition since 1906.
